Cold and Windy

Friday, Oct. 29, 2010

It was a big change in weather between yesterday and today. We started out with cold weather and rain. By the time I left the apartment, however, it was mostly cloudy with some spots of sunshine, and the rain had stopped. The wind, however, was so high that it made the day seem much colder than it really was.

I decided to go to the TKTS booth at South Street Seaport to see what plays they had for half price tonight. None of them interested me, and the off-Broadway plays I had considered seeing were not listed. There is a website where I could get half-price tickets to the ones that interest me, but I don't have a printer with me; I don't know if tickets can be bought at the website and reserved for pickup at the box office or not. Anyway, it isn't critical to me that I see any of them.

From there, I headed to Brooklyn. I decided to explore the Williamsburg district. It is a trendy part of the city right now, especially since it is just across the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan. New development is occuring throughout the area. Yet Bedford Avenue, the main street, is a lot like the downtown of a village, especially on its northern end. It's a mixed neighborhood, but the Hassidic Jews stand out due to their clothing and the curls hanging in front of the men's ears.

At one time, Williamsburg was a Polish neighborhood. There are probably quite a few older Poles who still live there. I ate lunch at the Northside Bakery, a Polish bakery/restaurant. I ordered a cabbage roll and mashed potatoes. The roll was huge--as big around as a fist and about 6 inches long. It was stuffed with meat, rice, etc., and topped with a tomato sauce. Then I ate what they recommended for dessert--a donut-shaped sweet that was actually a circular cookie with a hole in it topped with cream and whole hazelnuts and dipped in a thick dark chocolate. My total bill was $5. I have to admit, however, that the sweet was a bit too sweet even for me!

I returned to town, because it was really too cold with the high winds to be outside exploring. I headed to Union Square to see what a New York branch of Whole Foods looks like. I was amazed at the business it had. I know that New York went decades with only small neighborhood super markets and an occasional small gourmet market. And I also knew that they had gone wild over Whole Foods since it arrived providing them with a real supermarket with a high-end emphasis. Well, now I can't believe that they put up with the crowds to shop there. The line of people buying 10 items or less wound around and through the store with an employee standing and holding a sign to indicate the end of the line for more people to know where to join! There must have been 75-100 people in that one line!! I couldn't even get close enough to see what the basket checkout lines were like. It was like all Whole Food stores--clean with lots of choices with an emphasis on high quality.

From there, I walked further up the street to Madison Square Park so I could explore Eataly, an Italian food specialty store with restaurants that just opened on Aug. 31. It was filled with customers and had just about anything Italian anyone could want. Already, there are many photos of the place on Google.

By then, I was tired and cold and returned to the apartment to read during the early evening hours. I went back out to explore my neighborhood in the evening. Some people were already out in Halloween costumes. I am hoping that it will be warm enough tomorrow night and Sunday night for there to be many more out. I grabbed some pizza from a local place that had a long line, but I was disappointed to find it was no where near the quality of what I bought at Patsy's yesterday. Then I returned to the room for the night. I'm tired from being so active the first few days of my trip.